The word tulip, which earlier appeared in English in forms such as tulipa or tulipant, entered the language by way of French: tulipe and its obsolete form tulipan or by way of Modern Latin tulīpa, from Ottoman Turkishtülbend (“muslin” or “gauze“), and is ultimately derived from the Persian: دلبند‎ delband (“Turban“), this name being applied because of a perceived resemblance of the shape of a tulip flower to that of a turban.

In Persia, to give a red tulip was to declare your love. The black center of the red tulip was said to represent the lover’s heart, burned to a coal by love’s passion. To give a yellow tulip was to declare your love hopelessly and utterly.

This picture was shot with a Lensbaby Composer Pro with a Double Glass optic in it and a F2.8 exposure disc, on a Canon 6d, set to “A”, with ISO 100 with 1/500 shutter speed. I’ve edited it in LR4 with nothing more then adding some vignetting and boosting the contrast with 10%. The picture was cropped to center the tulip.